The Plan For The New Me...

Everyone is blabbering on about their New Year's resolutions...oh wait, that is what I am about to do too...oopsy poopsy...

But this year I really am committed. No, really, I am. Especially after my little reality slap the other night with my road rage. (see the post above)

I've got a friend who is absolutely amazing. She is more like Jesus than anyone I think I've ever met. And I tell her this all the time. She tells me that she is far from perfect and that I just don't know her well enough. I respond by telling her that I know her plenty well enough, and that what I know what I am talking about! None of us are perfect, we all have our shortcomings, but the powerful goodness that radiates from this friend is undeniable. She is one of those people that make you want to be better just by being around her. Her words and her deeds are consistently kind and loving.

I told her about my little escapade and said, "That is something that you would have never even thought to do! You wouldn't have even had the thought to flip out and flip the guy off!" Nope. No she wouldn't have.

And so, enter my resolution...to be more like this friend of mine. To have a little something called self control. Yes I may have these thoughts, but I'm going to do my best not to act on them. You may honk at me or cut me off in traffic, and I now will use the sign language for "I love you" or "Have a delightful day" instead of  telling people where to stick it... And as I encounter the difficult to love along my path throughout the day, instead of wanting to kill them or thinking of ways to do so, as I may normally do, I shall 'kill them with kindness.' I'm going to seek out the positive and accentuate it...

(To aid in my success maybe I should start by sporting mittens to prevent the hand gestures, and pray for laryngitis to keep the words I speak kind or inaudible just until I get the hang of it...No self, you can do this...You think you can, you think you can...)

Wish me luck as I begin this resolution and journey to better myself. If I am successful it's gonna be a good day in my neighborhood.Oh boy, here I go...

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"My choice of friends has helped keep me straight. I have had friends who expected me to be good, and I have tried not to disappoint them." 

-Camilla Eyring Kimball

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Happy Birthday Lori!

Today is Lori's birthday...And so today I say, I am so thankful that you were born!

She is truly one of the most incredible people I have ever had the chance to meet. I am blessed beyond words to be able to call her my friend.

I don't know of many people who have as many desirable attributes as she does. She is eternally kind and compassionate. Everyone who comes in contact with her feels loved and uplifted. She inspires you to want to do good and be good. Her goodness is endless. She is true and faithful in every sense of the words.

I want to be like her when I grow up...

The Power of Prayer

"Think of the power of...prayer. It's as if you lift someone with loving hands and hold him of her up on remembrance before God. That person is in your memory, in your heart, in your thoughts. And now you have brought his or her name before God in joyous, sympathetic remembrance. What a wonderful gift of plenitude." ~Chieko Okazaki

Today I was blessed by this act of prayer. I felt the power of a friends prayers in behalf of my family and I. I was overwhelmed with gratitude. There was so much peace as we were getting ready to take Ted to Provo. Peace wasn't initially what I thought I was going to feel so much of. I was thinking more along the lines of the sadness that comes along with shipping off one of your best friends. But there was peace. And I knew it's source. The Spirit. But I also undeniably knew of who had petitioned that source. Lori.

This woman is amazing. Her prayers are powerful. When she prays, it is more than talking. It is communicating. And not just communicating with her God, but her Father.

I want this kind of personal righteousness. I want this kind of relationship with my Father. And with my whole soul, I desire to bless those around me as she does. She is an example of what a real disciple looks like. She is my friend, and I am so very blessed by this fact.

So today, prayers were felt. They were real. He does hear us, and He will answer us...and so often it is through another person's kindness and loving acts, that those prayers are answered and His love is felt.